Tortured by an inner certainty that he is not a Binwalter, August struggles to discover his identity before Alzheimer's disease drags his mother into obliviion. Can he convince her to tell him the truth before it's too late?

When he looses his job, his marriage disintegrates, and his father has a debilitating stroke, Andy throws up his hands and moves back to California and the house where he grew up, hoping to help the old man mend and heal himself. Melvin, Andy's father has a remarkable recovery, due largely to Andy's good work, and Andy discovers there really is no place like home. Memories of his happy childhood surround him, and when he discovers the Hancock House mansion across the street is about to be torn down, he tells his dad about Louie, the skeleton in the attic, and Melvin makes him tell the police....

After depressed real estate salesman Harvey Drumm literally runs into sixteen-year-old Clarie Maplethorpe on her bicycle, a bit of energy and hope surges into the thirty-seven-yearold's psyche. Each insists the accident was their fault; smitten, Harvey tries to find excuses to run into the girl again. With the high school just around the corner from his home, he finds her easily, and they become more than friends.

As their relationship develops, Clarie reveals horrible details about her dead father and their relationship. Clarie's unusual mother, Shauna, adds to this stew, contributing...